More than $1 billion in office tower sales in Brisbane are due to complete within the next month, pushing the city towards a record year in transaction activity.

Fresh from the sale of its $40 million Ann Street tower to Goldman Sachs earlier this month, the City of Brisbane Investment Corporation is expected to sell its Green Square Close G2 tower in Fortitude Valley to GPT Group for about $110 million.

The 16,000-square metre building is the jewel in the crown for CBIC and is expected to sell on a yield between 7.5 and 7.7 per cent.

CBIC chief executive Mark Mazurkiewicz declined to comment but it is expected the building will be officially opened before Christmas.

The 12-storey asset has only completed this year and contains a strong range of tenants including communications company Optus, resources group Oil Search and Queensland Urban Utilities.

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CBRE
’s Bruce Baker and Flint Davidson are negotiated the sale of the G2 Tower are also in the midst of finalising a sensitive deal to sell Morris Property Group’s 26-floor office tower at 179 Turbot Street for more than $170 million to Malaysia’s second-largest pension fund, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan.

CBRE is also in the final stages of selling Westlawn Property Trust’s 26-storey tower at 307 Queen Street for about $120 million to Sydney-based syndicators GDI Property Group .

Meanwhile, ISPT is closing in on a half-share in
Cbus Property Group
’s yet-to-be built 43-level state government-anchored tower at 1 William Street for between $350 million and $400 million.

DEXUS
Property Group, acting for a pension fund, is also set to buy the $160 million AM60 office tower.

Towers worth $1.7 billion changed hands in the first half of the year, almost three times the same period last year. If another $1 billion transacts that will beat the city’s record.

According to figures by Jones Lang LaSalle, Brisbane’s record year for office tower ­transactions was 2007. In 2007, $2.56 billion worth of office towers were sold, boosted significantly by the Queensland Investment Corporation selling Central Plaza One, Two and Three, plus 400 George Street.

Unusally, the record activity this year occurred just the city also faces a record vacancy in its office buildings.

The record vacancy in Brisbane is 14.8 per cent, Jones Lang LaSalle says, while figures for the September quarter already show the rate has reached 14.5 per cent.

A significant part of the vacancy is in secondary office towers – caused mainly by the contraction of state government tenants – while most of the sales transaction activity is occurring in prime grade towers.